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A candidate for gastric bypass surgery, Nichols, a caseworker for the state's Child Protective Services, can't get Texas' health insurance plan to cover the surgery. Her insurance considers the procedure an elective, she said.

Now desperate, Nichols has turned to an unlikely place to help pay for the surgery: an Internet loan.

And she's not alone. It's a new option growing in popularity for many morbidly obese adults — some of whom are getting into debt by self-financing their bariatric surgeries, which cost roughly $25,000.

Nichols has applied on numerous Web sites — carecredit.com and SurgeryLoans.com — for high-interest surgery loans. But with an annual salary of about $30,000, she's having a hard time getting approved for the total amount.

"It's a sacrifice that I have to make," said Nichols, who lives in northwest Houston. "No one else can help me."

I'm not sure how I feel about this. A lot of bypass patients remain overweight or even obese after the honeymoon period is over.

The article said one woman had had the surgery at 232# and is now 154#. 232 is certainly heavy, but I'm surprised it's heavy enough to qualify. Maybe what used to be a true "last resort" is now done on people who are not as heavy.

It would be pretty awful to still be making payments on the operation loan if you were one of the ones who experienced regain.

There's a reason why doctors have a fairly intensive procedure for determining who to operate on. The surgery is dangerous and only those who show a commitment towards losing weight are eligible.

Further, gastric bypass is not a miracle cure, it is a treatment option. People who regain weight don't "experience regain," they fail to stick to the program and gain the weight back. It is no different than a liver transplant patient complaining about the effectiveness of the surgery when he re-developes cirrhosis after drinking too much.

The article said one woman had had the surgery at 232# and is now 154#. 232 is certainly heavy, but I'm surprised it's heavy enough to qualify. Maybe what used to be a true "last resort" is now done on people who are not as heavy.

If you are only 5 feet tall and weigh 232#, you almost have to go thru a door sideway cause your ass is so big. :eek:

A reputable surgeon will screen for food addiction and other psychological issues that would cause relapse.
The criteria is based on Body Mass Index of height/weight AND co-morbidity (other illnesses caused by obesity)
That being said, I know a lot of people who lied thru their teeth to pass the mental health screening and then exaggerated every physical symptom they can find.

As for relapse, it will be seven years for me in December. And except for my pregnancy when the little life sucking leech drained all the nutrition out of me and I lost seventy pounds, I have stayed within one size of jeans.